Wachusett with Wilma
Where: Mt. Wachusett
When: 12/23/2023
With: Wilma
I stopped taking Wilma on climbs like this after she came up lame following a trip. She spent several days hobbling around and getting sympathy, and I figured that mountain days were over for this 16+ year old dog. Best to stick to long walks on level trails.
Now, I'd been thinking of a hike up Wachusett for some time - maybe redline a few more trails - and when the weather and my schedule lined up nicely, I decided to go. I mentioned it to my sister on a phone call and said Wilma wouldn't be going along. "Oh take her," she said, and I thought, why not? Wilma hadn't been showing any signs of aging lately. Just the opposite, in fact. On our walks around the neighborhood, she'd break into a trot sometimes, often on the uphill section. So I bundled her into the car and off we went.
I drove to Wachusett without the usual navigation assistance, and found I knew the way just fine. Today's starting point was the Echo Lake Road trail head, a new one for me. As I approached, the parking area looked full, but there was one spot right next to the entrance and I pulled in. Within minutes were were on our way.
Echo Lake Road was just that, a road, with a surface of coarse rocks (at least to start). I was concerned about Wilma's paws, but she seemed to do just fine, and after a bit the surface changed to smoother stone dust. We made our way up to the lake then headed on to the High Meadow trail to start the climb.
Just leaves on the trail and in the woods - the only snow around was man-made and on the ski slopes - and the few ice patches we encountered on the trail were easy to get around. We met up with other hikers from time to time, some heading up, some down, but the area wasn't especially crowded. One couple was worth noting - an older woman and man who passed up while we paused for Wilma to sniff something. The woman led the way, and the man behind her kept stooping to the trail, where he picked up fist-sized rocks and tossed them off the trail. Trail maintenance, to remove loose stones perhaps? It seemed quite odd.
We arrived at the meadow (more sniffing for Wilma), then caught up with a woman and a group of four kids as they made their way up a short climb just inside the woods. Wilma picked her way up the rocks, then past the group, and soon we were on a shoulder of the mountain with a view beyond. From there the trail passed through an area of old growth forest where many of the trees had numbered tags, presumably to track their location & status.
A bit more climbing from there and we were at the summit. A few folks were around, but they were either just leaving, or were sitting in the sun by a small pool, so we had the summit area to ourselves. I tried to convince Wilma to pose for a photo (not much success) and a selfie with me (also not interested), then we climbed the tower for a quick look around. Visibility was pretty good, with Boston and most of the distant peaks easy to see. Nearby, the chair lift was spinning away, bringing up skiers for their rides back down the slopes.
To make a loop, we descended on the Harrington trail, on old favorite. It was pretty rugged however, and I had to lift Wilma down in several places where the drop was more than her short legs could handle (I didn't need/want to be carrying an injured 36 pound dog all the way down). I stopped at one particularly tough spot where a side trail led to a favorite viewpoint. Wilma had already started past it, so I had to lift her back up a bit to go visit the view. She was less interested than I in the vista though, so we were pretty quickly back on our way down.
The trail continued down steeply for a while longer, then made a turn past some impressive icicles and descended to the base of the slope. From there it was easy walking to our next trail, the Lower Link. It was a new trail for me, and apparently little used, judging by the state of the trail surface. Lots of leaves and little evidence of travel. A pretty trail however, which crossed a bridge over a pretty stream before arriving at the gravel Administration Road, a popular route. We met several groups there before turning off once again on Echo Lake Road. We followed that back to the lake, then back to the car for the ride home.
The numbers: 3.52 miles, 991 ft. climbing, 1:45 moving, 2 hours total
